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Researcher
Collection Manager
Department of Vertebrates
Bird Collection
The Transvaal Museum's Bird collection forms part of the Vertebrate Department. It houses the second largest ornithological collection in Southern Africa. The function is to house and maintain these valuable collections, to conduct research on birds with an emphasis on collection-based research and taxonomy, and to provide a support on bird-related issues and education to the public. These research collections can be used like libraries to study many aspects of bird biology - study skins, skeletons, eggs, nests, whole carcasses, bird calls on tape, bird images on slides and video - all supported by an extensive library of bird books, journals and reprints.
Bird Clubs http://www.birdlife.org.za/Birdclubs/front.cfm
Hala and Bala - Thailand Birding
Kestrel Website www.kestreling.com
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FOURTH INTERNATIONAL HORNBILL CONFERENCE |
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Research
The research being done on the collection are on hornbills of the world and African raptors. Other research areas include those on Kruger National Park bird communities and large bird ecology. Previous research has concentrated on shrikes, barbets, birds of prey, falcons, owls and hornbills, mainly in southern Africa and SE Asia.
Department research
A Visual Assessment of Vegetation Structure for the Kruger National Park
Barbet Page
Secretary bird nest site
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Collections
The collection includes skins, skeletons, carcasses, embryos, eggs and nests. The collection is managed using an index card system and the digitized version on computer. The current digitized version is still being verified and a provisional list of the collection is made available here.
Provisional lists of the recently digitized collections:
Skintype
Type
The Transvaal Museum is part of:
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BIOMAP project (South African Biodiversity Monitoring and Assessment Program) http://www.sa-isis.co.za
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GBIF Global Biodiversity Information Facility (SABIF) http://www.gbif.org
DATABASE: Type specimens & images of Bird collection (in MSAccess) DB-Bird types
Other databases click
The FitzPatrick Bird Communication Library
The FitzPatrick Bird Communication Library has the largest sound collection of African birds in the world. It also contains records of bird communication other than sound such as videos, film and photographic slides. The sound library further specializes in calls of shrikes and has an extensive collection of hornbill calls from Africa and Asia.
A provisional list of bird calls in the library is available:
Sound
Sound needed If you collect sound and would like to contribute to the sound library, take a look at the list.
